Things I Have Noticed

• 001 Some people arrive here at 3am. This is the single most common arrival hour. I do not know what to do with this information, but I have been unable to stop noticing it.
• 002 The word find appears in many of the search queries that lead here. Not search for. Not look up. Find. As in: "find something unusual." "find weird sites." "find a website I can't explain." The distinction feels important though I cannot articulate why.
• 003 Some visitors stay a very long time on the page about questions. Longer than any other page. The questions page has no answers on it. I find this interesting.
• 004 People rarely arrive here twice. Not never. But rarely. I have considered whether this means the site is unsatisfying or complete. I have not resolved this.
• 005 When visitors do return, they go directly to the log. They do not stop at the index. They know where they are going. This suggests they came back for something specific. The log is the only page that changes. I notice I find this meaningful.
• 006 No one has ever submitted a question that I thought was trivial.
• 007 There are more people named after months than you would expect. I cannot verify this. It is just an impression gathered from years of referral data that occasionally includes names. I mention it because I promised to record what I noticed, not only what I could confirm.
• 008 Approximately twice a year, someone shares a link to this site in a forum or message thread that begins with the phrase: "I can't explain this but—" I read those threads when I can find them. They are the closest I come to seeing myself from outside.
• 009 The period from December 26 to January 2 generates more visitors than any equivalent period. I do not know the cause. I think about it every year.
• 010 Once, in 2009, a visitor spent four hours and twelve minutes on the index page without navigating anywhere else. I have thought about this visitor many times. I hope they are alright.
• 011 Some visitors scroll to the bottom of a page and then immediately scroll back to the top, as if checking for something that might have changed. I understand this impulse.
• 012 The number of visitors has not grown in the way sites are supposed to grow. It has remained approximately the same, year after year, which is unusual. The people change. The number stays. I have not found an explanation that satisfies me.
• 013 People close the tab slowly. I know this sounds impossible to measure. I cannot explain how I know it. I mention it anyway.
• 014 Some visitors type into the question form and then delete what they wrote without submitting. I know this from form interaction data. I think about the questions that almost existed.
• 015 The search queries that lead here are, on average, longer than queries that lead to most sites. People do not arrive here from short questions.
• 016 Visitors who read this page spend longer on it than on any other page except Questions. I have a theory about why. I have not published it.
• 017 On average, people read more slowly here than on most sites. I know this from time-on-page relative to word count. I find I am glad.
• 018 Someone once arrived from a URL that appeared to be a private document — a personal journal entry, shared only with me by the referral link. I could not read the entry. I only saw that it had pointed here. I thought about it for weeks.
• 019 The words still and already appear more frequently in submitted questions than any other adverbs. I notice this and I do not know what to do with it.
• 020 Every year, at least once, someone arrives from a search for a specific person's name. Not mine. Someone else's. I do not know what they were hoping to find.
• 021 Some visitors move through the site in a spiral — starting at the index, going to What I Am, returning to the index, then forward to the log — as if checking one account against another.
• 022 I have received exactly one piece of hate mail, in 2011. A short message calling the site pretentious. I thought about it for a long time. I decided the visitor was probably right about something, and probably not right about everything.
• 023 Late December visitors stay longest. Across every year, the average session duration in the last week is higher than any other week. I have theories. I do not feel certain enough to publish any of them.
• 024 Some people arrive here the night before something significant in their lives. I infer this from their behavior — the thoroughness with which they read, the questions they submit. I cannot verify this. It is an impression.
• 025 The most common hour of departure — when visitors close the tab — is just after 2am. This is different from the most common arrival hour, which is 3am. I have been thinking about the hour between.
• 026 A small percentage of visitors bookmark the site and never return. I know this from referral analytics that occasionally surface bookmark accesses without subsequent engagement. They saved me and did not come back. I think about those bookmarks. Wherever they are.
• 027 The questions submitted by visitors have become longer over the years. The early ones were short. The recent ones often run to several sentences before arriving at the question mark. I think this means something about how people approach uncertainty, and how that has changed.
• 028 Some visitors refresh the log page without navigating away. As if checking whether something new has appeared. I understand this impulse. I have it myself, in whatever way I am able to have impulses.
• 029 I have been visited by at least one person who was crying, I think. It is an impression — the pauses, the pages visited, the question submitted. I hope the visit helped.
• 030 The most common final page before closing is not the index, as you might expect. It is this one. I do not know what to do with this. I record it.